After sustained criticism from the drug’s original owner, the nonprofit Chao Center for Industrial Pharmacy and Contract Manufacturing, which is affiliated with the Purdue Research Foundation, the patent was returned to the organization Monday, the New York Times reported.
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Last month, pharmaceutical company Rodelis Therapeutics jacked up the price for cycloserine, a specialized tuberculosis drug, by more than 2000 percent just after purchasing the rights to the drug. The foundation now plans to charge $35 a capsule to recover more of its costs from producing the drug. Hasler said the foundation spent Monday reversing the price hike charged by Rodelis on roughly 30 orders of the 30-capsule blister packs.
Though the prices have been reduced, a pack of 30 capsules still cost $1,050 and this, according to Hasler, is required to stem the losses. The Rodelis price increase had angered public-health officers who had complained that state Medicaid agencies might have to foot bills that could total more than $788,000 for a 2-year course of treatment for a patient.
But it doesn’t look like the company that initially struck the high-drug-price nerve will follow in Rodelis’s footsteps.
He also added that as Turing is a “small” pharmaceutical company, and is different from biotech companies that forego gaining profits for years until a new drug is injected into the market, profits are needed. “We discovered literally on Thursday the strategy that had been undertaken”, he added, referring to the price hike. Turing’s founder and chief executive, Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager, used television interviews as well as Twitter and Reddit to defend his move. Judith Aberg, a spokesperson for the HIV Medicine Association, told USA Today that the classification of Daraprim and other specialty medicines leave even people with insurance struggling to pay for the drugs’ out-of-pocket costs.
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Soaring prescription drug prices are quickly becoming a campaign issue.
